When Laura Vogt discovered that Minnie Hoopes, one of the first female homesteaders in Oklahoma, was her great-great-grandmother, she knew she had to write about this amazing woman. “In the Great Quiet” is fiction but based on a real life heroine.
The great land rush of 1893 remains controversial. While white people living in Kansas took advantage of the federal government’s plan to open up for ownership land in Oklahoma, many indigenous people were displaced. How would the two groups come together to peacefully create new communities? Rather than forcing such alliances, men and women working one-on-one needed to put aside their differences for survival.
Minnie’s family lived a good life in Kansas. Besides her parents, she had two brothers, Ezra and Willie, and an adopted sister, Magnolia. Minnie hoped her boyfriend, Lark, would agree to homestead with her. But, to her surprise, he and Magnolia announce their engagement and plan to remain in Kansas. Minnie is heartbroken, but nothing can stop her from sticking to her plan to own her own piece of land.
Her parents understand her wanderlust and send her off with love and supplies. Although her two brothers are also headed to Oklahoma, Minnie wants her own stake, not sharing anything with them. Danger strikes immediately. Arriving at her land, she’s confronted by two criminals who want to take her land and attempt to rape her. Minnie is a fighter and grabs her gun and shoots both of them dead.
Immediately, Minnie understands the consequences of what’s she’s done. In this new west, vigilante justice rules. Even though she was protecting herself, who would believe a woman? Someone, however, comes to her rescue. The mysterious figure is known as The Lawman and he helps Minnie bury the bodies. Minnie is grateful but understands that this stranger now holds a secret that could bury her, too.
Minnie is content to keep to herself while she builds a barn for her animals and a make shift structure for herself. She soon learns that on the prairie bonding with neighbors is the key to safety. She makes friends with the Browns, Olive, her husband, Asa, and their daughters. Olive is pleased to learn that Minnie was a teacher in Kansas and says the settlement needs someone to school the children.
Minnie also meets an indigenous woman, Niabi and her husband, Wa-ah-zho. Having only heard how the white man ended up with the land once owned by the Osage, Minnie is outraged and sad to hear how much Native Americans have lost.
Despite her concerns about The Lawman, he becomes a part of her life, helping her dig a well and protecting her during storms or encounters with enemies, whether humans or animals. On one occasion, Minnie comes to his aid when he is shot and left for dead.
Minnie tries to leave her life in Kansas behind, but she’s still troubled by Lark rejecting her for Magnolia. As sisters, they shared everything, even a man. But knowing that Lark chose Magnolia over her, and Magnolia deceived her, still hurts.
The Lawman – she soon learns he really was a lawman at one point and his name is Stot – has secrets, too. But as the two lean on each other to make their way in a new, unforgiving frontier, they grow closer together. Is this her future? A new family with Stot?
When the bodies of the two criminals are found, Minnie faces a critical test. Does she come forward and admit she killed them? Will they take her land away and send her to prison? She knows if she doesn’t confess one of her friends, even Stot, may be charged with the murders.
Minnie often hallucinates, visualizing pioneer women who lived in Oklahoma in earlier times. Rather than fearing these visions, they inspire her, not only to paint them, but to use their courage as inspiration for her own journey.
Vogt’s novel brings to life a time and place many of us know little about. The Minnie was a real person makes the telling all that more real.
In the Great Quiet
Laura Vogt
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Top Bigstock photo by Richard Allen McMillin
